Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
It comes as a shock to many people when they realize that the famous Ten Commandments are primarily ten promises, not ten rigorous, burdensome prohibitions. The secret is understanding what the Prologue means: "I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage [slavery]" (Ex. 20:1, 2).
God is telling us, I have already redeemed you; I have already delivered you out of slavery; I have already brought light to you, new hope, new joy. Now, believe that I am your prayer-hearing, prayer-answering God, your Friend, your Savior; and then, says God, I guarantee you will never come under the bondage of breaking this perfect "law of liberty" (see James 2:12). You will sing with David, "I will walk at liberty, for I seek Your precepts" (Psalm 119:45).
The Ten Commandments can be read with the dark glasses of the Old Covenant, complete with the fire, and thunder, and lightning, and earthquake of Mt. Sinai. That's how ancient Israel read them, and look at their history of backsliding, defeat, and finally the destruction of their beautiful temple and of their city Jerusalem. It was all Old Covenant ever since Exodus 19, like a dark day of heavy clouds with only an occasional peek of sunshine.
The Ten Commandments can also be read with the eyes of the New Covenant, and suddenly they come into focus as God's ten grand promises of victory over all temptations. For example, take the seventh: "You shall not commit adultery" (Ex. 20:14). The Old Covenant glasses make it sound like a prohibition that multitudes think is virtually impossible to obey. "Doesn't God want us to have any fun?" Some serious-minded people grit their teeth and clench their fists and determine to obey under fear of hell fire if they transgress. They are living under the Old Covenant; and seriously, the problems they face in their own hearts are so severe that they cannot imagine how they can be obedient, and still be happy.
But there is a Savior, and He belongs to all of us. If we are willing to understand what He has already done for us (not merely what He may offer to do for us if we will take the initiative first and do everything just right), and if we understand how He has taken the initiative to save us, what it cost Him to do so, how "[He] bore [us] on eagles' wings, and brought [us] to Himself" (Ex. 19:4), and if we sense the love that led Christ to His cross, then He says, the promises of the New Covenant will open your blind eyes, warm your cold heart, give you repentance, and transform you into the person that your spouse can fall in love with.
It may sound impossible, but "the gospel ... is the power of God to salvation," here and now; it's not an delusion (Rom. 1:16).
--Robert J. Wieland
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: January 21, 2000.
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